Help Us Help Others

The interest and support by individuals, businesses, and socially responsible organizations make it possible for CAUFP to continue providing programs, counseling ,and long term support to help citizens avoid and recover from financial hardships due to predatory lending and financial schemes that impose unfair or abusive loan terms on borrowers.

What is Predatory Lending?

Predatory lending is any lending practice that imposes unfair or abusive loan terms on a borrower. It is also any practice that convinces a borrower to accept unfair terms through deceptive, coercive, exploitative or unscrupulous actions for a loan that a borrower doesn’t need, doesn’t want or can’t afford.

By definition, predatory lending benefits the lender, not the borrower, and ignores or hinders the borrower’s ability to repay the debt. These lending tactics often try to take advantage of a borrower’s lack of understanding about loans, terms or finances in general.

Predatory lenders typically target minorities, the poor, the elderly and the less educated. They also prey on people who need immediate cash. For instance, people who need to pay medical bills, who need to make a home repair or who are in dire need to make a car payment. These lenders also target borrowers with credit problems or people who recently lost their jobs. These credit issues often disqualify borrowers from conventional loans or lines of credit and yet have substantial equity in their homes.